Kevin, This is basically the approach the City of Toronto took with their children's services dept. a customized LiveCD distro on the desktop and a big server. Each user logs in and they're basically good to go.
I take a look at what a circus the techs here have to put up with in terms of imaging drives and so forth. A live CD based distro makes a lot of sense from an infrastructure standpoint, particularly because of it's portability between different types of machines. We're starting to see good used computers with umph (that can do a decent job of handling something like Knoppix) get to a pretty good price point now. I'm sure the CBE is littered with tonnes of suitable hardware. In Toronto, they were able to keep most of their desk-top hardware and put their money into servers (Sun, regrettably). Makes good sense. Marcel > -----Original Message----- > From: Kevin Anderson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 11:27 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: (clug-talk) CBE Wants to hear from us - it's a start at > least. > > > One benefit for the "when it breaks" that I thought of is > that they could > use "distro on a disk" type solutions. I think Cluggix would > be the best > bet, simply because home-grown means alot. Rebuilding the > box means "shut > machine off - turn on again". It wouldn't work for the > servers, but it > would easily work for the desktops. Further, upgrades would > be a matter of > shipping out new CDs. > > LTSP would work too, but it seemed a bit ugly to get it going for each > different machine. It certainly worked and it worked well once it was > running, but with CDs, you're immediately ready to go with > anything that's > donated and brought in. This school currently does not even accept > donations due to the level of maintenance they require to get > them running > initially. With a CD, they could just ask, does it have a > CDrom, does it > have a NIC (not even neccessary for some uses). > > Further, if a student needs help with some assignment, they > could simply be > given or lent a CD identical to the ones used in the > classroom. Parents > would be free to keep a copy for their own home use. Currently, if a > student is learning to use Word (publisher, XL, whatever), > and they need a > copy at home, they face 2 options. 1) the school can > implicitly encourage > the parents to pirate a copy. 2) the school can expect the > parents to cough > up several hundred dollars for a legit copy. > > Heck, the School could even accept donated computers, even if > they won't use > them internally, and then offer them to parents who can't > afford a PC of > their own. or partner with a Computer Recycler, and give the > recycler all > the donations with the understanding that CBE would be able > to allocate used > PCs at a 10 to 1 ratio (or whatever). I'm still thinking it > through, but > there are far more possibilities when building the machine > involves "put in > the disk, turn it on". > > Kev. > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mahlah Hansen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 3:00 PM > Subject: Re: (clug-talk) CBE Wants to hear from us - it's a > start at least. > > > > On September 22, 2003 02:50 pm, you wrote: > > > This is an excellent idea. The schools are always talking > to Microsoft > but, > > > the schools are always crying about cash. The ROI for > them with Linux > would > > > be a huge annual savings even with their educational discounts. > > > > I think a fair argument for this would be how much would it > cost them to > train > > their staff to use it? sometimes the cost of training is > far greater then > the > > cost of the licenses. They would have to know they would > be guaranteed > free > > or low cost consulting until their staff are completely trained and > > comfortable with the system. Offering help through certain > mailing lists > etc > > would not be enough support for them to start at least. I > just couldn't > > imagine they would have the time in the day to be searching > the internet > on > > how to fix their system if something breaks. You also have > to realize some > > people don't know how to use search engines efficiently, > and they might > not > > even know what they are suppose to be looking for. Putting > together some > > sort of 6 month to 1 year support group for the school may > be helpful, at > > least this way one person wouldn't have to be on call 24/7.. > > > > just a thought.. > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This communication is intended for the use of the recipient to which it is addressed, and may contain confidential, personal, and or privileged information. Please contact us immediately if you are not the intended recipient of this communication, and do not copy, distribute, or take action relying on it. Any communication received in error, or subsequent reply, should be deleted or destroyed.
